I have been lucky enough to get accepted into both USC and UCLA for Electrical Engineering. Now I am faced with the difficult decision of choosing! These are the considerations I am making, and my current thoughts on them.
- Cost Fortunately, as I am a NMF, I would not have to pay 70k a year to attend USC. Thus, the cost of attending each school is roughly the same (USC would still cost a bit more, but not significantly so that I could use this reason to choose one over the other.)
- Research Opportunities and Internships I don't know how easy it is to get these opportunities at USC, I would love to hear other people's experiences. But at UCLA, I have been offered a program called Fast Track, in which kids start doing research and internships from their freshman year summers.
- Getting Classes I can't imagine that there would be a problem with this at USC, but I know that it can be a struggle to get classes at UCLA.
- Reputation I'm not obsessed with prestige, but I do recognize that it can be indicative of the quality of a school, and can be helpful later on when getting a job. Is there any difference between UCLA and USC regarding their reputation in EE?
I have already visited the UCLA campus and will be visiting again, but I love it there. I haven’t visited USC yet, but I do plan to do so in a couple weeks. If you were in my position, what would you choose and why?